A day in the life of a shirt with no buttons or buttonholes

Yesterday I took off the "hawthorn" (more about that later), fulled the fabric and cut out a shirt in readiness to sew this morning.

You know who on his way to the towel covered mound in the window.

Right there behind the iron.

After which I took the protective towel from the pieces I cut last night.

Cats are just addicted to soft.

Toby enthroned on the pile of uncut fabric,

protected by a towel.

So, on to construction. Shirt back:

Shirt front, shoulders matched.

Shoulders sewn, over to the old sewing machine to stay stitch the neck to protect it until I get that far.

Serging around all other unprotected edges of the shirt body.

Ready to set sleeves. The sleeve is folded both to determine its center and identify front and back. The back is bigger that the front. As it's tough to see, I stuck the ruler in to help make the distinction.

Sleeve pinned at the shoulder seam and the leading edges matched for sewing.

The sleeve is set.

The side and underarm seams are done. 

Here is the shirt, still right sides together, wrong side out.

A part I don't like. Making a long enough strip of bias for the neck facing.

I cut the bias from the extra from the sleeve, otherwise, I would need another length of fabric, which I wove by hand.  Too much waste. So, I sew two strips for my length.

Perfect.

Bias serged to neck opening. Turn off serger, turn to sewing machine for finish sewing.

Hemming around the neck bias.

Hemming around the rest of the shirt.

The side vent.

Done, and over to Helen. Looks just like a pullover shirt.

 But wait. It's a little shirt/jacket/front button blouse.

With three quarter sleeves that will take a nice roll.

Because the color I read as "Hawthorn" looked like no hawthorn I know, I asked my sister her opinion of the color. My sister deals with color.

Her appraisal: Victorian rose.

I went back to the waste basket for the empty cone. Well I'll be--"hawthrose."

Google yielded nothing.  Victorian rose it is.

But, how does it button you ask.

We'll see.

When we did this for a living I had a beautiful Husquevarna dedicated totally to button holes.

I was the Queen of Buttonholes.

I made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds in twenty years.

But, it's gone.

My sister mentioned those button hole makers like our mothers had. Before zig-zag sewing machines, when a little attachment made buttonholes by moving the fabric from side to side, not the needle.

Her sewing friends endorsed the one in the green rubber box, and yes, they are plentiful on EBay.

I bought this one, delivery guaranteed soon from Iowa.

As my photography professor used to say, everything you do in developing the picture is one more opportunity to ruin your work.

Same principal applies to sewing.

However, I will become as expert with this little fellow as I was with my zig-zag. 

And although I could have sewn up another Victorian rose shirt in another size,

I decided to spend the afternoon weaving bluebell yardage for more shirts with buttonholes.